Chapter Text
It had been a handful of days since the younger Lloyd had returned to his own time, Life for Nya and Ember, even Zane continued on as it had done before the blond’s unexpected visit.
Nya kept her tea shop (that was once Mystake’s many years ago) alive with business from both the trickling stream of regular customers who return for their usual orders or the occasional tourists that stopped by most of the time to marvel at the unusual types of tea she had for sale.
Ember spent her time rotating between training under Zane, attending classes, giving tours at Ninjago History Museum, and helping Echo at BORG Tower.
It was while she was leading a tour through the Ninja-focused wing of the museum that she noticed the discrepancies between her prior knowledge and what was mentioned on the displays.
So, Lloyd had made the changes as he said he would, after all. But what specifically had he changed? Aside from going to get Echo.
Zane spent most of his time patrolling the now-massive Ninjago City for possible threats. When he wasn’t doing that, he could be found either training Ember or teaching a class at Master Lloyd’s Academy.
October 21st.
The Day of the Departed had rolled around once again. Business at Nya’s Tea Shop had slowed to be almost non-existent in the days leading up to the holiday weekend. As for the students that Zane teaches at Master Lloyd’s Academy, they had a long weekend (as the Day of the Departed fell on a Friday this year).
A few minutes before sundown, Echo and Ember arrive at the remembrance monument for the fallen Ninja to join Nya and Zane who are already there.
They all are carrying different colored paper lanterns: Ember has two, one in red and the other in orange; Nya also had two, one in electric blue and the other in smokey black; Zane had a purple one; Echo had an emerald green one.
One by one, they step forward to place their lanterns at the base of the monument, in the same arrangement they had done last year and the many years before that: black, orange, blue, purple, green, red.
No one said anything as the sun finally slips below the horizon and the sky starts to get dark. After a few minutes, Ember raised her left hand toward the lanterns and one by one, the lanterns lit up.
This was the first year Ember was able to light all six lanterns in one go.
Around them, everyone in Ninjago was lighting their own Day of the Departed lanterns for their lost loved ones. Some had lit traditional flying ones, as seen by the few lanterns that were now up in the air.
Still, they did not say anything as they stood in front of the memorial, remembering their siblings and friends but for some, their parents or husband too.
Back in the present (or the past, depending on how you look at it), they were just starting the Time Twins mess which had kept them very busy almost every day for weeks.
The Ninja had to (unfortunately) skip Day of the Departed this year as they were too busy dealing with the Time Twins to celebrate the holiday.
Although Cole still managed to find time to light a lantern for his mum, Lloyd found time to light one for Sensei Garmadon, and Jay found time to light two lanterns for his birth parents.
As he watched the lantern float up in the air, Lloyd wondered how Nya and the others were going in the future and also what had gone wrong between now and then.
Two important things he had to ensure happened: they go to get Echo (which had already happened) and that Ember was born (and by extension, ensure that Kai and Skylor got married).